‘Other Desert Cities’ Theater Review: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney Fail to Make a Once-Timely Play Relevant Again

A revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s *Other Desert Cities*, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney, revisits a family divided by politics and a long-buried tragedy. The review argues that the play, once sharply relevant to the Bush-era wars and conservative politics, now feels less connected to the present.

Set in 2004, the drama centres on Brooke Wyeth, who returns to her Republican parents’ Palm Springs home with a memoir exposing the family’s past, including the death of her brother Henry. Her parents resist the book, while her younger brother Trip is caught between them. The review sees the family-secret drama as a familiar theatrical form and suggests the production struggles to recover the urgency that helped make the play resonate when it first appeared.